Rivero Finally Signed To A Loan Deal

Well it took a while and I think the deal changed (possibly more than once) but Martin Rivero, a 22 year old Argentine midfielder, has finally been signed by the Rapids.  As usual terms of the deal were not announced but it is a loan, not a signing.  He's expected to travel with the team to Hawai'i on Sunday.

Putting together what's been discovered this week along with some information I got from somebody int he Rapids FO I have some guesses as to what happened and what will happen.  None of this is verified, this is all conjecture by me.  Originally this deal seemed like an out-and-out signing but now its a loan.  Reportedly Rivero had 4 months left on his contract with Rosario Central but he was out of contract because Rosario Central wasn't current on his salary so he was considered to be a free transfer.  Almost all loans into MLS include a option to buy and the coaching staff expects Rivero to be around for multiple seasons.  Earlier this week there was a tweet about Penerol in Uruguay being involved in buying the player and Rosario Central had made good on Rivero's contract.  Also I found out today there was a third party in Uruguay that owned part of Rivero's rights.

(If you're unfamiliar with the procedure of third-party ownership its a process that's common in some areas of the world like South America.  Teams that don't have a lot of funds will find a separate investor to help them buy a player with the understanding that they get an appropriate part of any transfer fee that team gets for that player in the future.  Sometimes these third-party investors aren't quite the silent partner they're intended to be.)

What I think happened is that Rivero decided his team wasn't paying him so he was free to sign with the Rapids and did.  When Rosario Central realized they were going to lose a young player for nothing they quickly paid him and then used their weight and the weight of the third-party owner (which I'm guessing is Penerol in Uruguay) to tell the Rapids Rivero was no longer available.  Colorado had the FIFA regulations on their side but knew that a protracted fight and getting FIFA involved wasn't going to help the team or the player.  So the compromise is that the Rapids will take him "on loan" for the remaining 4 months of his contract and Rosario Central will get some face-saving amount of cash from the loan deal or the option to buy.  Then when his contract expires in May he can sign with the Rapids.  We won't know for sure, if ever, until there's an announcement about the change in his status but this scenario seems to fit all the rumors and such that were floating around this week.

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On a completely unrelated subject, Eddie Johnson was signed by the league today and will go through the allocation process tomorrow.  I was told by somebody int he Front Office that the Rapids, 14th in allocation order, will probably contact Montreal, who's first, about trading for that top spot so they can claim him.  He was supposedly signed for a modest fee with a number of performance clauses and an option for a big raise next season.  We'll have to see what, if anything, the Rapids give up to move up and take him and how much the "modest salary" is but I'm really not liking the idea of Colorado signing Johnson for anything more than 100K and a draft pick.

Here's the updated camp roster.  Today I'm adding an * next to signed players that require one of our 7 international spots or trialists I think would require one.  As you can see we now have 5 international players under contract.

underline = unsigned trialist

Goalkeepers:

Steward Ceus

Joel Helmick (draftee)

Alanso 'Popeye' Jimenez*
Ian Joyce

Matt Pickens

Defenders:

Eddie Ababio
George Breslen-Hall*

Hunter Freeman

Kosuke Kimura

Tyrone Marshall

Drew Moor

Scott Palguta

Anthony Wallace

Marvell Wynne
Luis Eduardo Zapata*

Midfielders:

Davy Armstrong

Tony Cascio

Jaime Castrillon*
Issac Cowles
Steven Emory
Masaki Hemmi*

Josh Janniere*

Ross LaBauex

Jeff Larentowicz

Pablo Mastroeni

Brian Mullan

Joseph Nane
Aaron Pitchkolan
Martin Rivero*
Andres 'Michi' Sarmiento*

Jamie Smith*

Wells Thompson

Kohei Yamada*

Forwards:

Andre Akpan

Quincy Amarikwa

Jefferson Angulo*

Conor Casey
Sterling Copland

Omar Cummings
Daniel Frias*